The Astounding Naruto Fox
by Casey W
Summary: He stole to provide for his family but crimes have punishments. And his is... to go to monster-killing school. Go figure.
1. Chapter 1

In the valley on the eastern edge of the kingdom of Atlas lived three farmers. Their names were Burnie, Blaine and Brandon and they were the foulest of men.

These farmers had done well for themselves, each of them producing more food for the kingdom than any other farm. It could be said that any man, woman or child in the kingdom has eaten food provided by all three at least once. And some were fed without the farmers ever knowing about it.

Under the valley on the eastern edge of the kingdom of Atlas lived a great many faunus. To you or me, the eight families living there would be the strangest people you ever saw. People with the features of animals. Dog ears, cat ears, rabbit ears, whiskers, one even with a long striped tail! And there was one among this mismatched mob who had an appearance all his own. Sunshine yellow hair, two pointed ears atop his head, three whiskers on each cheek and a fox-like grin that gave away his species. Dressed in a ragged old brown tailcoat, this was the faunus' leader. And his name was Naruto.

Naruto was younger than you may expect. Nearing his seventeenth year of life, looking after this community of animal-like people was a great amount of responsibility. It was not as if he were the eldest there. There were some in their second decade, some their third. But these people were parents. Their own young children had to be the priority. But Naruto? Naruto was alone. No parents, no children, no siblings. No family. And because of this, Naruto decided to himself that all of these people, every single one of them was a member of his family and he would do anything to keep them safe and happy.

And this leads us to what makes Naruto the best leader that the small faunus community could ask for. When Naruto the fox decided he would do something, he followed through no matter what.

The farmers were heartless men and refused to feed the faunus no matter what was offered. Work, trade or pay the three would say as though with one voice 'NO'. They would say the next time the faunus came calling they would be met by shotguns.

That was fine by Naruto's view. If the men would not trade like civilised folk, the farmers would be the ones losing out. The faunus needed that food and they would get it.

And so, as dark would fall on the city, Naruto the fox would creep onto the farms, into the henhouses, the sheep pens, the pigsties, the wheat, corn and rice fields, and out would come a multitude of mirror images of Naruto, each carrying an animal or yield of crops.

And so it would go. For weeks, for months, the faunus would eat happily and the farmers would be none the wiser. Until one night it was ended by the roar of a shotgun blast.

Even if he hadn't heard the gunfire, Naruto would have known one of his doppelgängers was destroyed by it. The doubles that were furthest from the farmhouse ran with whatever they could carry. The closer ones made for the house to keep the enraged farmer Burnie busy.

Naruto escaped once again. But they were on to him now. They would be ready for him if he tried again.

Little did he know, this would be the least of his problems.

-(-)-

"Those ANIMALS!" Burnie yelled as he stormed into Blaine's home, slamming the door behind him.

"Swolefather who art in the iron temple, swoled be thy frame" another voice echoed around the barely furnished home, interspersed with grunts of effort. "Thy swoledom come, thy will be done, in the deadlift as well as in the squat rack."

"Blaine you meathead! Get out here! We have a problem!" Burnie yelled louder.

"I am in the middle of worship, you heathen! I knew you to be an agent of Broki!" the voice yelled back. "Give us this day our daily whey-", he continued.

"Oh, for the love of-!" Burnie hated when Blaine got like this and this might have been the worst time for it. Still, there wasn't much Burnie could do about it. The last time he tried to interrupt the musclebound farmer's 'worship' he got put through a wall. And then another wall. Instead he found his way to where Blaine was training and waited for him to finish.

"For thine is the swoledom, the power clean, and the glute ham raise. Forever and ever. Wheymen." Blaine spoke, finishing his prayer and lowering a barbell (with a disturbing amount of weight on it) to the floor. "Now, what was it you wanted?"

Through grinding teeth, Burnie told him. "I just caught one of those damn beasts stealing our livestock. Dozens of our animals gone to feed those creatures."

"Dozens?" Blaine asked with raised eyebrows. "I feel conflicted. To carry so many animals he must be a follower of the ways of Brodin like myself. Tell me, how were his delts? His traps?"

"Wha..." Burnie muttered confused. "What the hell are you talking about?! He wasn't a meathead like you! He was skinny! He just made copies of himself somehow!"

Blaine was suddenly outraged, much to Burnie's relief as he was finally acting like a normal person would. Sort of. "A true agent of Broki! Not even lifting the animals himself?! Does he not realise the sweet gains he could be making?!" The bodybuilding farmer headed towards the mantlepiece and retrieved his prized possession: his old Hunting shotmace, Earthshaper.

"It's faunus season."

"God, I hate your shitty one-liners."

-(-)-

After fetching Brandon who had remained blissfully unaware of everything up to this point, the three farmers began their search for the thieving faunus. They searched through each of their lands, through their barns and chicken coops, up and down both sides of the valley and back again.

It was Burnie who found their prey first. Carrying a pig and heading up the hill to the innermost of the outer walls, the blond fox faunus was slow and easily caught. A shotgun blast shredded the pig in his arms but the blond himself vanished in a puff of smoke. "Dammit!" Burnie yelled. "He must be around here somewhere! He was running back to his hovel! Brandon, start digging."

"Where? Look around! Their hideout could be anywhere!" Brandon whined.

"I have a solution." Blaine interjected, raising his shotmace.

Earthshaper was a brilliantly simple weapon on the face of it. Technically speaking it was the shape and size of a two-handed mace but its wielder could swing it comfortably with one. Made entirely of high-carbon steel, the shaft was thick and inlaid with designs of doves in white gold. The shaft was capable of being reconfigured into a traditional shotgun shape for easy wielding when a ranged weapon is more appropriate. The head of the mace was spherical save for the four flanges equidistant from each other and the hole at the top that served as the barrel. The handle was wrapped in leather for a more comfortable grip, interrupted only by the trigger for the shotgun mode.

Opening the shotmace's chamber, Blaine retrieved the dust rounds loaded inside and replaced them with a dust crystal of an earthy brown colour that he carved himself to fit. With a swing of his arm, he closed Earthshaper with one hand.

"And so this disgraceful cardio comes to an end." Blaine breathed as he slammed the head of Earthshaper perpendicular to the hill, burying it by sheer strength a foot into the soil. "And I can find those misguided faunus and show them the true glory of sweet gains!" Pressing down on the shaft, he aimed the barrel of the shotmace directly away from the group of farmers. Pulling back his right hand, he whispered "Brodin be praised".

And thrust forward.

As his palm impacted the handle end of the Earthshaper, the section of hill in front of the farmers appeared to vanish as a wave of sound and pressure hit them all at once. Blaine was unaffected. Brandon and Burnie, civilian through and through, were not. Both farmers were knocked off their feet, Brandon rolling down the hill before coming to a stop.

Blaine looked over his handiwork. The Earthshaper was quite well named. It did not destroy anything. Just reshaped it to its wielder's will. The effect of the Earthshaper when used with an earth dust crystal is to compress the materials in the direction the barrel is pointing, increasing the density of the surrounding area to make room for a big open space. Looking into the hollow he had created Blaine spotted something strange. Small black shapes with flecks of white... dissolving into ash.

Burnie grumbled to himself as he returned to his feet. "What the fu-", his tirade was ended before it could begin as Blaine grabbed him by the shirt.

"Go home. _Now_."

Burnie wasn't exactly the type to listen to orders. "Like fuck I'm goin' home until-", once again, he was stopped as Blaine let go of his shirt to grab his face and pointed it in the direction of the hole.

Where more shapes were appearing. Shapes with white masks and hateful red eyes. The blood visibly drained from Burnie's face. Blaine turned Burnie to face the muscular retired huntsman again.

"Go get Brandon. Go together to your house. Barricade as well as you can and keep your shotgun on hand. Got it?" Blaine half asked, half ordered.

Burnie nodded as Blaine let go of him and was off like a shot, picking Brandon up by the arm and _running_.

Blaine meanwhile, was pulling out and opening his scroll as quickly as he could. Pulling up the emergency contact feed, he input his old authorisation code and sent the message of a code Black with his coordinates. By the time he had retrieved Earthshaper and reloaded it with regular dust rounds, the alarms were already sounding.

More and more shapes were appearing in the crater. They were easy to identify. Mohlerts. Mole-like Grimm. Almost always small in stature, they were phenomenal diggers and had been the creatures most often responsible for sabotaging human fortifications during Grimm incursions. Each paw had a half dozen shovel-like claws giving them the ability to practically swim through dirt. They were actually Blaine's specialty. He was most often used as a sapper. Capable of reshaping an area, he could crush mohlert and their tunnels with a single blast of Earthshaper in his heyday. That might even be what he had done here purely by accident. It wouldn't surprise him if the mohlert were there to create an incursion point for larger Grimm.

"It's been a long time since I had a good round of Whack-a-Mohlert..."

Unseen by both man and Grimm, a blond faunus disappeared into smoke.

-(-)-

"Mohlerts." Naruto gasped as his doppelganger's memories flowed into him. "Out. Everyone out, now!" he shouted at the gathering faunus.

"What's happening?" a female dog faunus asked as she held her children close.

"We need to leave. It's not safe in here anymore." he half-explained as he started guiding people to the exit. "Get outside and get to high ground as fast as you can and keep moving away from the outer walls."

-(-)-

"This is stupid. This is stupid. This is stupid!" Naruto chanted to himself as he headed towards the outer wall.

He had left a few doppelgangers to watch over the other faunus but he knew they would be relatively safe. If it was mohlerts, they were probably the only ones there. And if they were that many under the wall, that meant they hadn't gotten any further. Probably. Likely enough that he felt he had to do something to help at the wall. This was protecting his family too.

-(-)-

"Hahahaha!" Blaine laughed maniacally as he slammed his ridiculously heavy mace into anything that caught his eye. Sometimes it was a mohlert that had come up to attack him. More often it was a crack in the super-compact earth from one of the other times he had struck it, creating more of them. "You mohlerts are fools! Following the way of Broki with your constant dirt swimming cardio! You seek embrace within his lean, athletic bosom! BUT NOT EVEN HE SHALL ACCEPT GRIMM WITHIN HIS TREADMILL-FILLED DOMAIN!"

Really, he was having the time of his life. Which may explain how he missed the mohlert that had appeared directly behind him, ready to rip out his spine.

"Not on my watch, dirt-mouse!" a scratchy voice shouted. Blaine turned, mace raised to strike but to his surprise he found himself looking down at a mohlert getting its head crushed between two identical dropkicking faunus. Upon hitting the ground, both blond fox men burst into smoke.

Properly looking around himself for the first time since his battle started, Blaine saw something he never would have expected. Two dozen copies of the fox faunus they had been hunting were surrounding him.

And helping to fight back the Grimm.

"Temporary truce?" one of them asked, Blaine unable to tell whether it was the original or not. "You can go back to trying to kill me after we deal with this."

Blaine shook his head. He had no intention of killing the faunus. But he could explain that later. For now, there was a pest problem to deal with..

-(-)-

Mohlert (prounounced 'mole-ert'): Mole variety of Grimm. Digging near their habitats is a bad idea. Small but swarms easily. Named for the author Lois Ehlert who wrote a picture book based on a Seneca legend about a mole who refused to yield a molehill to a fox.

Naruto Fox: Obviously based on two different stories. One being the popular manga series Naruto (that just recently finished its 15 year run). The other the Roald Dahl book 'The Fantastic Mr. Fox'.

Burnie, Brandon and Blaine: Very, _very_ loosely based on the Rooster Teeth employees Burnie Burns, Brandon Farmahini (not really, I just used his name because it started with B) and Blaine Gibson (again, not really. The B thing again and I needed a name I could rhyme with a character trait. I don't know if Blaine is in fact particularly vain).

Blaine: Based loosely on Saint David, the patron saint of Wales. A deeply religious man (snicker) whose most notable miracle was to raise the land up to form a small hill. Just to make it absolutely clear, David is Blaine's LAST name, not his first. Also, his speech pattern is based on the SwoleAcceptance subreddit. Go read it. Hilarious and kind of inspiring.

-(-)-

A/N: Oh, god I had fun with writing this. I love RWBY as a series and I had the concept for Naruto's greater backstory in my head for months. Soon as I started writing it we got a lot of the best stuff in this chapter. I freaking love Blaine in this. Hell, I'm tempted to do a side-story with him as the protagonist. He's that fun to write.

So I have no idea how often I'll update this. Those who read my other stories know that pretty well.

Thanks for reading.

UPDATE: There was a limerick here. It's gone now. Allusion to the original children's book or not, a limerick (especially a terrible one like that) is bound to turn some people away when it's the first thing they see in the story.


	2. Chapter 2

"The Doppelgänger semblance? You're certain?", Proffessor Ozpin, Headmaster of the prestigious combat school Beacon Academy and highly respected figure in almost every circle asked.

{"So it seems. Reports from first response and footage captured from the AK-130s all say the same thing."} the voice from Ozpin's scroll answered. {"A dozen duplicates all identical, all acting independently of each other. It's the Doppelgänger, alright."}

"Astounding.", Ozpin said before taking a sip of his ever present coffee. "The last time that semblance appeared was-"

{"Kushina, the Red Death, I remember."} the voice finished.

"Any resemblance? Semblances are semi-hereditary, after all."

There was a pause. {"He's a _faunus_, Oz."} the voice stated flatly.

"Well I suppose I'm just so enlightened I don't see such differences anymore." Oz said chidingly.

{"Don't give me that, Ozpin! You know I've been trying to-"}

Ozpin's laugh interrupted him. "Relax, James! I was just messing with you."

General James Ironwood could be heard grumbling on the other end of the scroll call but he let the jibe slide with a sigh. {"That does bring up a... problem, though."}, Ironwood admitted. {"Schnee is making a lot of noise over this. He's making it sound as though the boy conspired with the Grimm to weaken the kingdom while at the same time playing the part of magnanimous redeemer by offering to employ the other faunus as a sort of 'community service'."}

"Oh dear." Ozpin sighed. "And I assume he wants the boy imprisoned or executed to get rid of any obstacles. James, that semblance is too valuable to lose to the machinations of a greedy fool like Schnee."

"The Schnee Corporation does a lot of good for the kingdoms, Oz.", Ironwood defended weakly, a token response, and they both knew it. "But you're right. Thing is, there's not much I can do about it. I'd conscript him to the Hunter Corps but they're still leery of faunus here as it is and with this hanging over him..."

"They would never accept a faunus with a criminal record." Ozpin agreed. "Do you have a plan?"

{"I'm talking to him."}, Ironwood said, smirk audible in his voice.

"Very funny." Ozpin said with a roll of his eyes.

{"I'm serious, Oz. I've got nothing. I'm asking for your help."}

Ozpin took another lengthy swig of his coffee as plan after plan was crafted and discarded before he settled on the best one. Even it wasn't spectacular but it was the best he had. "I'll be in Atlas in a few hours."

{"Shall I roll out the red carpet?"}, Ironwood joked.

"How did that work out for you the last time I visited?" Ozpin asked with amusement.

{"You snuck in through the back and got one of my men demoted."} the General answered flatly.

"Guards aren't supposed to just let people in to secure facilities, James. Even if they do say 'Don't worry, I'm supposed to be here.'"

"You _were_ supposed to be there!" Ironwood fumed.

"Details, details."

-(-)-

"Ozpin! It's been too long, it's good to see you! Come in, come in!" Jankin Schnee greeted warmly with the pleasantness learned from a lifetime of business dealings. On the inside he was on edge. Ozpin never made social calls. Not to him, at least. It was no secret that the two clashed due to their... differing ideologies. "Hannah, bring some coffee, would you? Black, one sugar."

Ozpin entered the luxurious office fully, examining it in detail. Almost nothing had changed since he had been there last. Same glass desk decorated with the Schnee Dust Corporation logo: a white snowflake, same potted ferns in the back corners. Schnee himself looked just the same as he always had. Short-cut white hair, wire-framed glasses covering cobalt blue eyes and a no doubt extraordinarily expensive white suit. "It's good to see you too, Jankin. How's the family?"

"Ah, Winter started at the company earlier this year! I couldn't be more proud. We put her in a managerial position at one of the mines. Nothing too strenuous, just something to get her feet wet, before we really put her through her paces, you know." Schnee gushed, genuine pride leaking into his voice.

"It's truly a joy to see one's children come into their own, isn't it?" Ozpin asked rhetorically, masterfully hiding his distaste. "And your other daughter?"

"Ah, Weiss. She still insists she intends to be a huntress. I still think she's looking for a position to field-test our prototypes once she finishes with combat school." the entrepreneur answered, expression tightening imperceptibly.

"Either one is a commendable ambition." the professor said as the secretary gave him his coffee. "Thank you." he said to her as he took a sip.

"And how are you, Ozpin?" Schnee asked, trying to get past the polite chat to Ozpin's real reason for stopping by. "I know you like to go beyond the norm for recruiting students but I imagine you're a little far afield for that!", he said, laughing at his own joke.

"Actually, that is precisely my purpose here. I wished to speak to you about a young man by the name of Naruto."

Jankin Schnee's face tightened once again, much more noticeably. "I see. Standards must have dropped sharply at Beacon if you are looking to recruit Grimm sympathisers, Ozpin."

"Please remember who you are speaking to Mr. Schnee.", Ozpin requested, façade of politeness fading quickly. "Do you really expect me to swallow that? I've read the reports. That young man helped fight back a fledgeling Grimm incursion at great personal cost. It's what got him caught after all."

"Two men _died_ in that incursion and he was the direct cause, Ozpin!" Schnee countered, rising from his chair and raising his voice.

"On the contrary. The ex-huntsman he fought alongside reports the mohlerts had already made it past the five walls surrounding Atlas and in his _expert_ opinion," Ozpin stressed, " were very close to creating a much more significant incursion point. One that would allow in far more than just mohlerts. Your scaremongering might work on the populace, it might even work on some of the higher-ups here in Atlas, but rest assured, it does _not_ work on me."

Schnee gritted his teeth. This was why he disliked Ozpin. Schnee was a captain of industry, a vital part of the kingdom of Atlas and this damnable man would still speak to him as though he were a petulant child. "The boy is still a criminal. He stole tens of thousands of lien worth of food from the mouths of Atlas citizens."

"And again you speak in such doomsaying terms." Ozpin responded, openly rolling his eyes. "Not 'from the mouths of Atlas citizens', Mr. Schnee. From the farms of some very well-off farmers. Not a single person went hungry in Atlas because of Naruto's actions. Had the farmers agreed to trade or to employ some of them, this would not have happened."

"So that lying faunus would have people believe-" Schnee began.

Ozpin cut him off. "_Enough_, Mr. Schnee. We both know why you want the boy out of the way. It can remain unsaid if it will mean you drop this pretense."

Schnee drummed his fingers on his desk. Once, twice, before slowly returning to his seat. "Very well. What is your alternative?" 'And how does it benefit me' remained unsaid.

"Pragmatism." Ozpin answered with the slightest of smirks.

"Pragmatism." Schnee echoed, scoffing.

"Indeed. Tell me something, Mr. Schnee. How many of your board members have you lost to the White Fang?"

"Are you threatening-" Jankin began before once again being cut off.

"No, no, far from it." Ozpin placated. "In truth I'm looking out for your family's safety. Let me put this in the White Fang's perspective for you. A faunus who did whatever it took to take care of his fellow faunus risks his life and his freedom in order to fight against a Grimm incursion. In response, the Schnee Dust Company rallies for the boy to be executed for feeding the hungry. Now let's say your bid is successful. Naruto is executed for his crime and you magnanimously offer his friends gainful employment at one of your many mining facilities. And of course it isn't hard to believe that the White Fang might once again mistake your 'generosity' for slavery. Jankin, your plan will make the boy a martyr."

"Now who is doomsaying." Jankin scoffed.

"Remind me, Jankin. What was their response to your last 'recruitment drive'?" Ozpin asked pointedly, taking a swig of his coffee.

That... was a very good point, Schnee had to admit. Two board members were abducted in the wake of the announcement, the White Fang threatening to kill them if the SDC didn't halt their plans. SDC policy was and continues to be to not capitulate to terrorists so they continued doing as they intended and... the White Fang responded in kind. That was a bad day, to put it far too lightly. Ozpin was right. Schnee might not surrender to terrorists but this would incite them far too much. "You still haven't suggested your alternative."

"Exile them." Ozpin suggested.

"Exile them?" Schnee echoed, incredulous. "What, all of them? Why?"

"Because that is the option I'm giving you." Ozpin said, calmly sipping his coffee. "You must admit, Jankin, you have boxed yourself into a corner. You have spent so much effort on painting the boy as a villain the public will not settle for light punishments. Imprisonment, execution, even exile will martyr him to varying degrees. In fact, imprisonment or exile might see him into the arms of the White Fang and then they have a vendetta against you _specifically_, don't they?"

"I could just exile him alone. You would recruit him, and I would employ the other faunus. Everybody wins." Schnee countered.

"I would recruit him in this scenario, would I?" Ozpin asked with raised eyebrows. "Are you really quite certain of that?"

Jankin gave him a flat look. "You wouldn't leave someone to die just to spite me, Ozpin."

"No? I assure you I've done far worse in my career." Ozpin retorted truthfully. "He wouldn't die anyway. The White Fang would scour the globe to find him, I'm certain. A symbol of their oppression like him? And with his power to boot? Absolutely. Besides, if this entire incident has taught me anything it's that faunus oppression is still alive and well in Atlas and fighting against it is a worthy cause."

"How _dare_ you-!"

"Those are your options, Mr. Schnee. Either you can move for Naruto and the other faunus to be exiled to Vale or paint a bigger target on your back. I hope you make the correct decision." Standing up, Ozpin calmly left the office. The sound of something smashing following him as he shut the door. As he passed the secretary's desk he once again thanked her for the coffee and suggested she send for a janitor to clean the mess in the CEO's office. And perhaps order a replacement desk.

-(-)-

It took several days. Several days of meetings, scroll calls and many, _many_ assurances to both the Vale and Atlas councils from both Ozpin and Ironwood that this was the proper course of action. Add in the admittedly reluctant endorsement from Jankin Schnee and Ozpin was able to meet Naruto personally for the first time to tell him the good news.

"So who're you? Someone else to accuse me of workin' with Grimm? Don't bother, I'm not in the mood."

He was not greeted warmly.

"Do you know who I am?" Ozpin asked.

Naruto squinted at him. "Noooo, that's why I asked, 'who're you?'"

Ozpin conceded the point. He just loved his intro to the specially recruited students too much to forego the formalities. "Well, I should introduce myself then. I admit it has been a while. My name is Professor Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon Academy, the premier combat school within the kingdom of Vale."

"That's a long name." Naruto quipped.

Ozpin smiled. "Indeed. And you would be Naruto... Do you have a last name?"

"Nope. Orphan." Naruto answered as though tired of hearing the question.

"Well, that won't do." Ozpin complained. It really wouldn't. Putting that on his transcripts would mess up the organisation of the system. Would they count that as his last name or first name for alphabetising purposes? Not to mention it severely limited the possibility for word acronym team names! "It might be a bit on the nose but might I suggest 'Fox'?"

Naruto shrugged. He considered himself to be 'Naruto the fox' anyway so it wasn't a big change. "That's fine."

"Excellent!" Ozpin smiled again. One problem solved! "Now Mr. Fox, if you would indulge me, I'd like to ask you a few questions."

Naruto sighed wearily. "I. Didn't. Work. With. The. Grimm. Why do people keep askin' me that! I didn't even know they were there! How the hell're you supposed to work with 'em anyway?!" He asked, near shouting.

"Please calm down. I know you didn't work with the Grimm and I know the whole story with the farmers. I just want to ask about your aura abilities and your semblance." Ozpin assured him. "Now, if I may ask, who unlocked your aura for you?"

Naruto stared blankly at him. "My what now?"

Ozpin's brow furrowed. "Your aura. Makes you stronger, tougher, faster, glows a little sometimes?"

"OH, that!" Naruto exclaimed, understanding dawning on his face. "Yeah, I dunno. It was always just a thing I could do. No one else could but I guess I'm just awesome." he finished his 'explanation', grinning.

"Quite." Ozpin agreed. "Were you always able to use your semblance also?" At Naruto's blank look he elaborated. "Your doppelgängers." The look remained. "Duplicates." Still. "Clones."

"OH! Yeah, I couldn't always do that. When I was a little kid I was having... y'know... some rough times. Anyways, we were outnumbered and I was like, 'I wish there was more of me' and then there was!"

"Were." Ozpin corrected.

"Right, were, whatever." Naruto waved it off. "So why d'ya wanna know?"

"Unlocking aura and semblances are things usually done at combat schools. They are among our greatest tools in fighting the creatures of Grimm." Ozpin explained. "Usually, aura is unlocked by one person unlocking it for another. Sometimes it happens in a time of great need but such things are rare. To be honest, I have never heard of it happening so young that the person doesn't even remember _not_ having it. Until today, that is."

"So... You're saying... I really _am_ just awesome? Sweet!" Naruto exclaimed.

"I suppose that's one way of looking at it." Ozpin half-agreed. "And I suppose that's enough sating my curiosity. Thank you for that. Now, I suppose I'm overdue for giving you some good news."

"Are my family okay?!" Naruto asked urgently.

"They're fine and will continue to be fine. You have all been sentenced to exile for your crime-"

"WHAT?!" Naruto yelled, interrupting the professor. "How are we gonna be fine?! They're kicking us out into the wilderness! I can't keep 'em safe out there!"

"Please, calm down and let me finish." Ozpin requested calmly.

"But-!"

"Let me finish." Ozpin insisted, but decided to keep talking to stop him from interrupting again. Faster that way. "You are all being exiled: _to Vale_. It has been arranged that your... family will be employed as farmhands within Vale territory. It isn't especially well paying work but it will put food on the table."

"You..." Naruto started but stopped trying to understand what was happening. "Like with Schnee?" He hazarded.

"No. Not like Schnee. They will be paid in lien, real money to spend as they like, not the company scrip Schee would pay them with."

"I-I... I don't understand." Naruto struggled to say, eyes welling up. "What's the catch. There's gotta be a catch, y'know!"

"No catch." Ozpin affirmed.

"That's..." Naruto gasped, wiping at his eyes, before his expression hardened, tears running down his face despite his best efforts. "You're lying. That's not how it works. There's _ALWAYS_ a catch! We'd _bow_ and _scrape_ and _beg_ and they'd offer us help if we do _one little thing_. And they'd take some of us away with them. Sometimes they came back with food or money but they _always_ came back bloody and bruised!" Naruto sniffed before slamming his fists on the table. "So don't you lie to my face and say there's no _fucking _catch! That ain't how the world works for us!"

"Mr. Fox!" Ozpin said sternly.

Naruto looked up at him.

"Naruto." Ozpin said as his expression softened. "Would you like to see them?"

Naruto's eyes widened, tears still running down his whiskered cheeks before his expression hardened. He nodded.

-(-)-

Jankin Schnee: Loosely based on Jack Frost. Jankin is one of the German variations of the name John or Jack.

-(-)-

A/N: Aww, come on! I put a freakin' humour tag on this fic! How do I do this every time?! Whenever I write something I manage to make it super depressing! Feh.

So this is about the time I should admit something. There's a phenomenal story out there by an author named Ryuugi (or Rgm0005 on this site) called The Games We Play. The author has enormous balls, enough to fill out a massive amount of backstory and setting for the RWBY world and I'm probably going to be borrowing bits and pieces of that if I can't come up with anything better. I'm not going to make everything different just for the sake of it when a good idea has already been done by someone else. There's too much blank space in the canon setting to do that.

So that means Atlas is seriously behind the other kingdoms when it comes to faunus rights as demonstrated in this chapter. And if Mistral ever becomes relevant it will probably (though not definitely) be run by a mafia of former noble families.

Just thought you should know.

Oh, and I forgot to pimp my podcast on the first chapter. Fandom Flux Podcast. Look it up on Youtube. We talk about writing stuff a lot, whether in games, film, TV or print. Also we review manga chapters in another show called Manga ReFlux (heheh). Look forward to next week when we look at the Naruto finale!

Thanks for reading.


End file.
